MB UNIUD

1^st Paragraph

The speech starts with a quotation. The quotation is a means to draw the audience's attention. It is rendered by simple words:

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union"

The speaker adopts some relevant linguistic choices.

"Farmers and scholars; statesman and patriots" : it is an anaphoric syntax.

Tyranny and persecution are key words.

Idea of the unity: "a group of", "gathered", "and, ... and", "America".

He uses semantic choices that develops a sense of unit.

There is also a semantic field of time: "two hundred and twenty one years ago", "still", "launched, traveled" (simple past), "finally", "lasted", "spring", "1787".

He wants to create a continuity between the past and the present and the semantic fields of unity and time are the semantic ingredients to construct a more perfect union in time.

2^nd Paragraph

It starts with the definite article.

Obama uses the definitive article implies that the audience and the speaker in itself have clear ideas: they are thinking about the same concept.

There is a key word: "unfinished". It is put in key position (at the end of the sentence); it bears a very stress sound and therefore it sticks into the mind of the audience.

"Unfinished" is a very important stilistic choice: it paves the way to a task that President Obama and his audience should be ready to carry out: to create a more united State.

The speech goes on introducing the hot issue of race and in order to do that the speaker uses a very important meaningfull word that become the key word. The use of the word "stained" anticipates other 2 very important words, that is sin and slavery.

The key words are defined "a question that divided the colonies".

Racism and slavery also brought a stalemate for a better evolution of the document.

All this brought "to allow the slave trade to continue" and last but not least "to leave any final resolution to future generations".

And this is Obama's task because the Constitution in itself cannot be said to be complete since there isnt't - at its very core - equality for all citizens of USA.

3^rd Paragraph

Again time become a very important semantic field because it implies a possibility of a transformation.

The alliterative "promised, people, perfected" underlines the relevant of the Constitution, the most important words of which are "liberty", "justice" and "union".

The words are not placed casually; there cannot be any justice if ther is no liberty. And without liberty and justice no union is possible.

There is the strong conviction that the contemporary situation "should be perfected over time".

Obama perfectly know that written words do not always mean concret reality: they are not enough to guarantee "full rights and obligations".